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Will downloading and updating software damage my SSD since it's mostly a write operation?
 
I'm having real problems updating the firmware on my 840 SSD

I can see the disk in Disk Utility, I've formatted it as Mac osx but when I run the firmware update it says no compatible disk detected

I've also tried on Windows and the SSD Magic program won't detect the disk either
 
I'm having real problems updating the firmware on my 840 SSD

I can see the disk in Disk Utility, I've formatted it as Mac osx but when I run the firmware update it says no compatible disk detected

I've also tried on Windows and the SSD Magic program won't detect the disk either

By which method are you running the firmware update?
 
By which method are you running the firmware update?

In all cases the drive has been connected using a go-flex usb connector

I've tried running the SSD Magic through Windows on my work laptop and it won't find the drive however it is visible in my computer

I'va also created a bootable DVD to use on my mac and again connected the drive by USB where it simply states no compatible SSD's are available

Could it be that i've formatted the drive? i've tried in OSX Journalled, Fat and NTFS and nothing works on either system
 
In all cases the drive has been connected using a go-flex usb connector

I've tried running the SSD Magic through Windows on my work laptop and it won't find the drive however it is visible in my computer

I'va also created a bootable DVD to use on my mac and again connected the drive by USB where it simply states no compatible SSD's are available

Could it be that i've formatted the drive? i've tried in OSX Journalled, Fat and NTFS and nothing works on either system

The problem is that you cannot use any external CD/DVD-ROM to perform the update. You have to have it connected to the main internal SATA bus of the computer. That's the only way.

Additionally, you can update the firmware via OS X and don't need Windows to do it. Here is the OS X firmware download page.
 
The problem is that you cannot use any external CD/DVD-ROM to perform the update. You have to have it connected to the main internal SATA bus of the computer. That's the only way.

Additionally, you can update the firmware via OS X and don't need Windows to do it. Here is the OS X firmware download page.

I've been using the internal SuperDrive on my imac as I haven't yet removed it, it's the SSD that is connected via USB and I've been running the bootable mac version of the update
 
I've been using the internal SuperDrive on my imac as I haven't yet removed it, it's the SSD that is connected via USB and I've been running the bootable mac version of the update

Okay. You should also put the SSD on the main SATA bus as well, even if temporary, just so you can update it.
 
Okay. You should also put the SSD on the main SATA bus as well, even if temporary, just so you can update it.

Cool, Thanks

I've just pulled the drive out of my wife's macbook (What cant the imac be this easy to do) and put the SSD in there and it ran the program fine....turns out the firmware was up to date!!!

Thanks for the help.....now to put it in my optibay......I'm thinking I can install a fresh copy of lion on the SSD whilst the old HDD remains there with it on and once everything has gone ok format the old drive with Lion on it....this way I can simply drag and drop any apps from one drive to the other??
 
Cool, Thanks

I've just pulled the drive out of my wife's macbook (What cant the imac be this easy to do) and put the SSD in there and it ran the program fine....turns out the firmware was up to date!!!

Thanks for the help.....now to put it in my optibay......I'm thinking I can install a fresh copy of lion on the SSD whilst the old HDD remains there with it on and once everything has gone ok format the old drive with Lion on it....this way I can simply drag and drop any apps from one drive to the other??

I think it would be better for you to either use Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine to restore your stuff to the SSD. Doing it the way you describe could be problematic.
 
Hello all,
Long time reader etc etc :)
I just popped an 840 pro 512Gb into my early 2011 15" MBP,
It is working well and feels snappy, though my boot time seems very long - over 40 secs…
Could it be because I cloned my old drive to it? It was a slower 160GB Intel SSD. The firmware is current…
Should I do a clean install?
 

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Hello all,
Long time reader etc etc :)
I just popped an 840 pro 512Gb into my early 2011 15" MBP,
It is working well and feels snappy, though my boot time seems very long - over 40 secs…
Could it be because I cloned my old drive to it? It was a slower 160GB Intel SSD. The firmware is current…
Should I do a clean install?

Go to System Preferences, Start-Up, and pick your SSD as the startup drive.
 
Go to System Preferences, Start-Up, and pick your SSD as the startup drive.
Thank you, that has cut it down to about 22 secs (from button push)…

I must admit I didn't think that would help much as there is only one drive in the machine, was it searching for the old one to boot from?
 
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Thank you, that has cut it down to about 22 secs (from button push)…

I must admit I didn't think that would help much as there is only one drive in the machine, was it searching for the old one to boot from?

What you basically did by choosing the "startup drive" is telling the OS not to go searching for Network Boot Drives or other local startup drives.

It cuts down your boot drive selection and boot up process down to @ 20 secs or less with a SSD

Glad it helped.. IAN.
 
For some reason I'm only getting about 170 MB/s sustained write speed but close to 500 MB/s read on my MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2011), 16GB Ram, 2.4 GHz i5. I have a 580 (non-pro) 500 GB with upgraded Mac firmware from samsung. Any ideas?
 
If you need to upgrade your SSD's firmware, Samsung offers ISOs that you can burn to CD / USB to boot from. That's how I just upgraded from 06 to 07 firmware.

Also, benchmarked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQifEuzYEZ4

I intend to give it a month, and when I do my 30 day review of my Speck case, I'll re-bench the SSD to see how the TLC NAND is holding up.
 
How SSD power faults scramble your data

How SSD power faults scramble your data (ZDNet)

If this article is right, and if you are using any kind/brand of SSD on an iMac or Mac Pro, you might want to put it on a UPS and configure it to shut down the computer before the battery is exhausted.

And for laptops, some of us (me) like to disable hibernation (something you can do in Terminal or with utilities like Chamelon), so that an exhausted battery would kill power to the SSD abruptly/ungracefully. Again, if this article is on track, then disabling hibernation might pose a risk, well beyond just losing unsaved files.

Worst case is a bricked drive, or loss of data that may go undetected/undiagnosed.
 
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SSD vs. HHD

Got my SSD last Friday as expected from Newegg! Didn't have a chance to test it until now. This is my 1st time changing a hard drive by myself, with a tutorial from ifixit, took me less than 5 minutes to do so. Super easy.

I have a Mid 2012 15" MBP, 16gb ram 2.3ghz i7. With my HHD that came with the MBP (Toshiba 500gb), I was getting 61 MB/s write and 40.9 MB/s read. Start up takes about 35 sec.

But now after I switch to the Samsung 840 SSD, with Trimm enable, I am getting 320 MB/s write and 509 MB/s read, and start up takes 10sec! An amazing improvement! I mean WOW!

Can anyone tell me what is the latest firmware for the 840 non-pro? My is DXT06B0Q. Is this it?
 
DXT07B0Q is latest firmware for you.

Got my SSD last Friday as expected from Newegg! Didn't have a chance to test it until now. This is my 1st time changing a hard drive by myself, with a tutorial from ifixit, took me less than 5 minutes to do so. Super easy.

I have a Mid 2012 15" MBP, 16gb ram 2.3ghz i7. With my HHD that came with the MBP (Toshiba 500gb), I was getting 61 MB/s write and 40.9 MB/s read. Start up takes about 35 sec.

But now after I switch to the Samsung 840 SSD, with Trimm enable, I am getting 320 MB/s write and 509 MB/s read, and start up takes 10sec! An amazing improvement! I mean WOW!

Can anyone tell me what is the latest firmware for the 840 non-pro? My is DXT06B0Q. Is this it?
 
Got my SSD last Friday as expected from Newegg! Didn't have a chance to test it until now. This is my 1st time changing a hard drive by myself, with a tutorial from ifixit, took me less than 5 minutes to do so. Super easy.

I have a Mid 2012 15" MBP, 16gb ram 2.3ghz i7. With my HHD that came with the MBP (Toshiba 500gb), I was getting 61 MB/s write and 40.9 MB/s read. Start up takes about 35 sec.

But now after I switch to the Samsung 840 SSD, with Trimm enable, I am getting 320 MB/s write and 509 MB/s read, and start up takes 10sec! An amazing improvement! I mean WOW!

Can anyone tell me what is the latest firmware for the 840 non-pro? My is DXT06B0Q. Is this it?

You can find the latest firmware version for OS X here.
 
Burning?

Thank you for the info on the firmware.

I had been using my MBP for the last 3hours after the SSD upgrade and it turn burning HOT at this point! Has any experience this? It wasn't like that with the HHD, it could have it on for 8hrs and it will be only be warm to the touch.

I am afraid it might burn out the battery!
 
Thank you for the info on the firmware.

I had been using my MBP for the last 3hours after the SSD upgrade and it turn burning HOT at this point! Has any experience this? It wasn't like that with the HHD, it could have it on for 8hrs and it will be only be warm to the touch.

I am afraid it might burn out the battery!

Burning hot? What and where exactly is that happening? Is this a MacBook Pro, being that you mentioned a battery?
 
Burning hot? What and where exactly is that happening? Is this a MacBook Pro, being that you mentioned a battery?

Yes. This is a 2012 MacBook Pro 15". I only have it for a month.

Upgrade the HDD to SSD about 3 hours ago. Everything seems good, but it became so hot a couple hrs later. The part opposite from the battery, CPU I think, turns very hot, then the area next to the touch pad feels warm and I turn it off. I had it on my lap, it was burning!

Never have feels like that before the upgrade!
 
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